New Ways to Keep Those Fitness Resolutions
You ate everything in sight during the holiday season and now you’re paying the price: None of your clothes fit. It’s time to make good on your New Year’s resolution to lose weight. Thankfully, plenty of new workout tapes are available to help your quest. So get off the couch and feel the burn.
Five very buff fitness instructors--all of whom have won National Aerobic Championship medals--host the fast-paced “The NAC System” (Orion, $15 each). The three-video collection offers an intense aerobic workout, a moderate cardiovascular workout with light muscle training and workouts that tone buns, arms, chest, abs and legs.
You have to be in peak shape to tackle Cathe Friedrich’s “PowerMax” (Step N’ Motion Videos, $20), an intensive step aerobics workout for experienced steppers. To order, call (800) 433-STEP.
For those looking for a more soothing, calm workout, why not check out “Tai Chi: The Empowering Workout” (Goldhil, $20). Hosted and narrated by John Saxon (“Enter the Dragon”), the one-hour workout is lead by the very mellow master instructor Jerry Alan Johnson.
Saxon and Johnson are also featured on “Chi Kung: The Healing Workout” ($20), which presents exercises aimed to cleanse, cultivate and refine your body and spirit.
Also from Goldhil are three comprehensive yoga tapes ($15 each), hosted by instructor Wai Lana. “Yoga: The Relaxation Workout,” demonstrates methods to lessen stress and massage your entire spine. The “Beginner’s Workout” ($15) is designed for beginning students and those who want a break from more strenuous workouts. “Toning Workout” strengthens the lower back and tones thighs and buns.
For those who want to combine prayer with their routine, there are the decidedly unique “Aerobic Prayer Series” videos: “Sing My Soul” and “Sing My Soul: Floor Work” (Spectrum Communications, $20 each). Dr. Irene Lamberti leads these aerobic workouts described as forms “of sacred movement designed to deepen the user’s experience of personal prayer.” To order, call (800) DANCE-61.
Aaron M. Binder’s “Pumping Iron After 50” (Increase Video, $16), includes a 20-minute routine featuring 11 exercises, a companion book and two dumbbells for strengthening hands.
Popular fitness expert Kathy Smith has two new tapes on the market (BodyVision, $15 each): “Lower Body Firming” and “Peak Fat Burning.” The former utilizes basic exercise principles and works all the lower-body muscle groups simultaneously.
The latter provides maximum calorie burning and conditions the body to continue to burn fat hours after completing the workout.
Actress-model Kathy Ireland works up a sweat on two new videos (UAV, $15 each): “Kathy Ireland’s ABSolutely Fit,” which features five abdominal workouts for men and women; and “Kathy Ireland’s Advanced Sports Fitness,” which presents an intense regimen including sports moves and weight training.
The new “Reebok Rhythm Section” workout line (PolyGram, $13) features “AerobiCaliente” and “Sweat Factory.” The 30-minute “AerobiCaliente” offers an intensive cardio workout set to Latin-inspired dance moves. Diana Maria Lara and Mauro Maschkvich are the instructors.
Set in a New York dance club, “Sweat Factory” presents trainer Petra Kolber leading a group of dancers in fat burning cardio dance routines.
Ayres Sampling: Several of the films of Lew Ayres, who died Monday at age 88, are available on video, including his finest: 1930’s Oscar-winning “All Quiet on the Western Front” (Universal, $20). Based on Erich Maria Remarque’s antiwar novel, this powerful drama deals with seven German youths who go from school to the World War I battlefield. Ayres is perfectly cast as Paul Baumer, a young man, initially enthusiastic about becoming a soldier, who learns all too soon about the horrors of war. The finale is a classic.
Ayres turns in a nice comedic turn as Katharine Hepburn’s carefree brother in the charming 1938 comedy “Holiday” (Columbia TriStar, $20). Cary Grant also stars in this sparkling adaptation of Philip Barry’s hit play.
The actor also starred in several low-budget but popular “Dr. Kildare” movies, including 1940’s “Dr. Kildare’s Strange Case” (Nostalgia, $20). Lionel Barrymore is on hand as the crusty Dr. Gillespie.
After serving as a medic in World War II, Ayres returned to Hollywood and teamed up with Olivia DeHavilland in the crackerjack 1946 psychological thriller, “The Dark Mirror” (Republic, $15).
Ayres received his only best actor Oscar nomination for 1948’s “Johnny Belinda” (MGM, $20). He gives a compassionate performance as an earnest doctor who cares for a deaf woman (Jane Wyman) and her illegitimate child. Wyman received the best actress Oscar.
Killer Bs: Arriving Tuesday is the idiotic comedy “Downhill Willie” (BMG), starring Keith Coogan as a not-so-bright young man who is a genius on the ski slopes. Staci Keanan (“Step by Step”) plays his main squeeze.
“Burning Up” (Republic Home Video) is the latest collection of episodes culled from Showtime’s erotic anthology series, “Red Shoe Diaries.” “Friends” star Matt LeBlanc is featured.
Three acclaimed actors--Billy Zane, Ron Silver and Robert Downey Jr.--headline “Danger Zone” (Live), a less-than-stellar action-thriller involving hijacked plutonium in East Africa.
Coming Next Week: Woody Harrelson, Bill Murray, Randy Quaid and Vanessa Angel star in the slapstick bowling farce “Kingpin” (MGM/UA).
Laurence Fishburne and Stephen Baldwin star in the comedy-action-adventure “Fled” (MGM/UA).
Hugh O’Conor, Anthony Sher and Roger Lloyd Pack star in “Young Poisoner’s Handbook” (Cabin Fever), a dark British comedy based on a true story of a psychopath obsessed with chemistry who decides to test his theories out on friends and family. . . . Also new: “Scorned” (A-Pix).
